The British government has set a November ultimatum for Iran to suspend all activities connected to development of nuclear weapons, The Guardian newspaper reported Thursday. This move marks the failure of more than a year of negotiations between Tehran and the "European troika" of Britain, France and Germany, the report added.
"Refusal by Iran to comply would produce a new Middle East crisis in which the issue would almost certainly be referred to the United Nations security council," it added.
A British official told the daily that Tehran should comply by the November board meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
"Iran needs to meet its commitments. We would like it to meet its commitments before then, but if it doesn't, Iran needs to know and it needs to know now, that there is going to be a decision point in November and at that point a very serious option ... is referral to the United Nations security council," he said.
"We cannot have any kind of negotiation that goes on forever. At some point you have got to decide whether negotiating further makes sense, or whether you need to do something else." (albawaba.com)
© 2004 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
